Why Is Ohio so Competitive?

I'm not from Ohio, so I don't know much about the state's dynamics. Obviously, there are a lot of rural areas which lean right, but my gosh, there are several major urban areas, plus several good-sized college towns. Ohio greatly benefited from the auto industry rescue and organized labor in the state is pretty strong.

4. as you say, there are rural areas and urban areas , it's working cass but religious types also etc

5. Because no Democrat has ever won Ohio by a large margin recently...

Even the guy in your avatar, in a reelection landslide back in '96, still managed to only win Ohio by six points. That tells you everything you need to know about the state and why it's always a tough one for either candidate to win by a large margin.

Northwest Ohio: Midwestern. Flat as hell. Small towns. German catholics. Field of Dreams sort of thing. Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture. Social conservative but no tolerance for Wall street/big business types. Economic democrats social conservatives

Southwest: Mix between cities, aerospace, and big business. This is where we have the most diversity among voters (not raicial diversity but who will vote for either party). Cincinnati area is very republican (but not crazy snake handler types, they are the gordon gekko types). The miami valley might as well be a surrogate of the USAF because of the base. Big mix. About 15 major colleges in the area too so education is big. really the key to winning the state. the BBC said Clark County (in this area) was the demographically perfect representation of the country.